Pages

Saturday, 13 February 2016

Lip Monthly | January 2016

For Christmas in 2014, my parents gave me a twelve-month Bellabox subscription. 2015 passed, I received my twelve boxes (three of which I still need to post about... but it wouldn't be a Padawan post if it wasn't late, right?) and when asked if I wanted a renewal, I was all like, "Yeah, nah, no thanks." While it's not a bad subscription box service, I now have loads of samples that are piling up -- I don't really need any more.

To my great surprise, my (often) wonderful mother gifted me a twelve-month subscription to Lip Monthly, as a reward for making it through the stresses of 2015, of which there had been copious amounts. If you know me well, you'll know that I love lip products -- I have about a shoebox and a half full of them -- so to receive a few products from brands that I wouldn't normally have an opportunity to try will be an awesome little boost each month!

My January Lip Monthly bag did indeed arrive in January -- I know that Australian beauty vlogger Miss Billygets this too, and her previous videos have sometimes remarked that her bag has not arrived in its due month. Lip Monthly does come from the US, however, and Australia Post's postal services are now very lame, so I wouldn't be too surprised by delays, given that they are "timely".

(By "timely", I mean that they don't take a whole extra month to turn up.)

This month's lip monthly arrived, for the most part, in the cute little red and white striped purse that you see above. I love this little purse, as it will be the perfect little storing place for the lipsticks in my handbag -- there's a small army of them, and they keep falling out of the pockets.

Additionally, I received these products, so let's take a look at them!

Oscar Blandi Moisture Recovery Treatment Balm || The one item that was a smidgen too big for the purse. This is a hair product that promises to "saturate hair from roots to ends for the ultimate restorative therapy". Let me tell you, the ends of my hair look fried and frizzy, so anything that promises to give them a little bit of love will sit well with me! (Maybe, Shae, you should just book a haircut.) This product doesn't seem to be available for purchase anywhere online, so it might be some overstock from a previous promotion, but I received a 125ml bottle that Lip Monthly claims is worth at least $25 US.

City Color Be Matte Lipstick -- "Latte (M6)" || YAS, LIPSTICK. This cruelty-free shade is a kind of brown nude. Usually I'm very careful when it comes to brown nudes, for fear of sporting beige-coloured lips (yuck), but I'm hoping that this will suit me well. A potential put-off for people is that it smells like a crayon when you sniff it. No joke: when I uncap it and take a whiff, I'm immediately transported to memories of a very old Crayola computer game that I had in the late 90s. Lip Monthly values this lipstick at $4.99 US.

Ofra Cosmetics Long Lasting Liquid Lipstick -- "Laguna Beach" || I remember being slightly concerned by the shade of this liquid lipstick, but I really don't remember why! This is the dusky pink nude, the kind that I feel is floating around as a pretty popular shade at the moment. I thought that it might be comparable to Kylie Jenner's Candy K Lip Kit, but after looking around online, I really don't think it is. These retail for $19.90 US each.

Starlooks Luxe Longwear Lip Pencil -- "Stellar" || HUZZAH FOR LIP LINER! I only have a couple of lip liners in my collection, so this is definitely a welcome addition. It seems like a much deeper pink nude (at what point do I stop calling it "nude" and just stick with "pink"?), and I think it will wear well underneath nude browns as well as on its own. I'm still a fresh-faced Padawan when it comes to applying lip liner, so here's hoping I don't make myself look like a massive fool when I try it. This apparently retails for $14 US, but this particular line doesn't seem to be available on the Starlooks site.

Price: $12.95 US (~ $18.28 AU)Lip Monthly Bag Value: $63.89 US (~ $90.18 AU)
Overall, I'm really excited about what I got in my Lip Monthly bag! It doesn't look like much, especially when compared to my previous Bellabox unboxings -- but, being rational, do I need to receive more than three or four lip products at a time? No, probably not. It's still a great little way to try some products that I wouldn't normally have access to, so I'm looking forward to incorporating these into my makeup routine, as well as my future bags!

Have you ever received a Lip Monthly bag? Do you own any products from these brands? Let me know in the comments!